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April 16, 2020

Printing blocks in the Rex Wailes Collection

by Mildred Cookson, The Mills Archive Trust, UK

In these days of digital communication, it is sometimes a surprise to realise how time-consuming it used to be to prepare papers for publication. As Rex Wailes was a prolific author, we now have in our possession a large number of printing blocks for the illustrations he used. The blocks were engraved as a negative image and when caught in certain lights they show up very clearly.  



Close inspection of an individual block shows how the image was captured as small dots, usually on a zinc or copper surface.  The halftone photo engraving of the French Cavier windmill shown here has developed white spots, not showing a starry, starry night, but betraying the use of magnesium as a base, one that corrodes more quickly than zinc.

Photo-etched onto zinc, mounted on blocks of wood cut into standard sizes and given a coat of ink, they were run through a press to provide a positive image on the page.

Early blocks were created by line engraving on a flat sheet of copper, thick enough to be rigid when taking impressions. The outline of the subject was first traced on the copper, and then the engraver guided a triangular tool called a burin or graver along the traced outline. By varying the pressure, a groove of varying depths was cut into the metal, forming either a coarse or fine line on the finished impression.


Read more HERE.
 

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